


bug duty

by mintcream



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Cute, Fluff, I actually really love minbin, Neighbors, Platonic Cuddling, Strangers, based on true story - Freeform, no beta we die like men, or at least I think it's fluff, or at least I thought so, teeny fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-20 04:36:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20221918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintcream/pseuds/mintcream
Summary: Thin walls, wild imagination and a cowardly neighbor equals a weird night for Minho.--or--Minho comforts Changbin after his terrifying confrontation with a cockroach.





	bug duty

**Author's Note:**

> This is was inspired by the horrifying encounter I had with a cockroach last night. Everything in this story pretty much happened, minus the cute boy that comforts me throughout the night. s i g h.
> 
> Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors.

Everything. From the airplanes whizzing through the skies, drunkards yelling expletives and sexual desires at 2 a.m., to the window across the green belt of grass that broadcasts action movies every. single. night. Everything. Just everything can be heard through the thin walls of Minho’s single room apartment. Especially, the person who just moved into the apartment below him. 

Minho has never seen the person who lives below him, but he hears him. Every day. Oddly enough their schedules almost mirror one another. When he wakes in the morning and begins making his routine breakfast smoothie, he hears music softly booming below him. There are times when he gets ready to leave for work, he hears the activity beneath him cease. Then the door below him open and shut, indicating the person below him left. He’s even gotten ready to take a shower, and heard the shower below him turn on. Another time, he and the person below him opened their balcony door at the exact same time. Minho listened as the person laughed uncontrollably at whatever variety program they were engrossed in. Their laughter is another one of the things Minho has grown accustomed to. 

Tonight was the same as usual, piercing bursts of laughter that occurred throughout the duration of their program. Minho is ninety-eight percent certain they were watching the same thing. Every time he was about to laugh at a scene the person below him had beat him to it. 

When Minho was ready for bed, he went to the bathroom. He was in the middle of brushing his teeth when he heard a shriek. Startled, he accidentally stabs the back of his throat and spits all over the mirror in front of him. He tries to quiet his coughs to see if he can identify where the shriek came from. A couple minutes pass and there’s nothing. Except for the soft banging from the person below him.

Minho’s imagination goes wild. _ What if it was the person below me is screaming for help? And the banging is them struggling? _Different scenarios play in his head, but it’s quiet. _ Maybe they just slipped or something. _He continues his night routine, but then he hears an ear-splitting scream. Then, another one. More banging. Another scream. Then silence. 

Due to his imagination creating a variety of deadly scenarios in his head, Minho decides he needed to ensure the person below him wasn’t dying in the various ways he was picturing it in his head. He grabbed his cell phone, in case he needed to call the police. He stared at his green light saber, briefly wondering if he should bring the power of The Force with him, but opts against it. _ If it’s nothing serious, I'll look silly. _ He takes his nun-chucks along instead. _ Not as powerful as the light saber, but if there’s a fight I’m still ready. _

  


Minho knocks on the door, but there’s no response. He waits a few more seconds before knocking again, a little harder this time. He braces himself when he sees the door opening. Minho isn’t sure what he was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t a tiny boy with tears streaming down his face. The boy is shirtless with only shorts and glasses on. Jet black hair combed back, but stray strands are dancing about.

“Can I help you?” The boy sniffles, eyes puffy. 

Minho realizes he didn’t exactly plan what he’d say if there wasn’t a murder taking place downstairs. “I- Uh- I was wondering if you were okay? I heard screaming, thought it was you, so I came to see if you needed help.” 

“Will you really help me?” The boy looks so vulnerable, of course Minho can’t say no. 

“Yeah, I will. What happened?” He asks, as the boy lets him inside. He does his best not to look around too much. He sees it’s fairly clean and there’s still unpacked cardboard boxes in some areas. Minho sets his nun-chucks down besides the door he entered.

“There’s a cockroach.” His neighbor whispers. 

Minho blinks. “That’s it?” 

“I’m terrified of bugs.” Unconsciously, holds onto the sleeve of Minho’s hoodie. “I haven’t been able to step into the bathroom, since it appeared.” 

“I see,” Minho hums. He is lead towards the bathroom where he sees the war materials. A couple of patterned towels, a spray bottle full of glass cleaner, and a broomstick. He raises an eyebrow, “How exactly were you planning on killing the cockroach?” 

“I was using the broomstick and spray to get it to come off the wall, then I was gonna throw the towel on top of it and stomp it to death.” 

Minho wants to laugh at the ridiculous strategy, but he can’t, seeing how serious his neighbor is. “I’ll help you kill it.” 

“Really?” The boy looks at him with hopeful eyes and Minho returns a reassuring smile. “Thank you so much! I was worried I’d stay up all night. My skin won’t stop crawling.” He shows Minho his palm, “It was the size of my hand! No joke.” He shudders. 

Minho chuckles, “We’ll get rid of it.” He walks into the bathroom with the towel that he plans to squish it with. “You said it’s in the bathroom right?” 

“Yeah, except for when I let you in, I was watching the door the whole time. I’m sure it’s still there.” 

“ I don’t see it though.” He checks all the corners of the bathroom, the ceiling, the drawers, behind the toilet. 

“Can you check the toilet plunger holder? That’s where it was the second time I ran away from it.” 

“Where was it the first time?” Minho asks, looking into the toilet plunger container.

“On the toilet paper roll.” His neighbor seems near tears again, remembering. 

“That’s absolutely disgusting.” Minho frowns. “It’s not here anymore, where did you last see it?” 

“In that corner behind the door.” He points to the general area, not willing to be near the bathroom. 

“It’s not here.” Minho debates whether he should tell the boy that he thinks it crawled into the wall. 

“Oh my God, what if it’s in my room?!” He says frantically, holding back sobs. 

Minho has never had someone breakdown in front of him over a bug. He’s not sure how to handle the situation. He pulls the boy into a hug, rubbing his back. “It’ll be okay. I’ll look through the other rooms for you, okay?” The boy settles his head into the crook of Minho’s neck, clutching the fabric covering Minho’s back. “Let’s search together.” His suggestion receives a nod. 

  


When his neighbor’s sobs calmed into sniffle, Minho let the other hold onto his hoodie sleeve as they searched around. They searched the cabinets, closet, bedroom, living room and kitchen. The cockroach either has the ability to camouflage itself or it really wasn’t in any of the rooms. His neighbor had grown more anxious, not being able to have found the cockroach. 

“What do I do?” The neighbor asks, on the verge of sobbing again.

Minho softly pats the boy’s head, hoping the other finds it comforting. “There’s nothing you can do. I’m sorry.” 

“What if it eats me in my sleep.”

Minho holds back the chuckle that almost escaped him. “If it’s any consolation, you’re a lot bigger than the roach. It can’t eat you.”

“Size doesn’t determine how lethal something can be.” He furrows his eyebrows.

“...But, it’s not lethal?” Minho’s not sure how to comfort the boy. He chooses to hug him again. 

The boy gratefully accepts, wrapping his arms around Minho. “I’m really scared,” He whispers. He pulls back and looks into Minho’s eyes. “Can you stay with me?” 

_ What have I gotten myself into… _

Minho tilts his head, “Why do you want me to stay?” 

“I don’t wanna get eaten in my sleep.” The boy squeezes Minho in his arms. “Please.” 

Minho bites his lip, unsure of what he should do. “I don’t know…” 

“_ Please _.” The boy practically begs. 

“Okay.” Minho sighs, giving into the boy’s plea. “I’ll take the sofa, then.” 

“No, my bed.” 

Minho blinks. 

The boy blushed, realizing his words could cause misunderstanding. “I don’t like sleeping on my sofa. If you stay, I want us to be in the same room.” He explains. “I promise I’m not trying to do anything weird.” 

“Okay…” Minho chose not to question. It feels weird for him to accept the offer, but then again everything about this cockroach situation was weird. 

  
  


Minho lays on the bed, as close to the edge as possible. “Can we turn off the lights now? Two hours have passed. It hasn’t showed up, I’m pretty sure it’s not coming back.” 

“No, I’m scared it’ll start crawling around as soon as the lights are turned off. I can't let that happen.” He says from beside Minho, less than an inch away. The bed was large enough for three people, but the boy felt safer being right next to Minho. 

“You’re only psyching yourself out. The cockroach is gone, it’ll be okay.” He watches as his neighbor buries his face into his hands. 

“I know, but I can’t help it. No matter how much I try to reason with myself, I can’t stop being paranoid.” 

“I’m right here. I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.” He says reassuringly. “What was your name, by the way?” Noticing they haven’t introduced themselves yet. “I’m Minho, I live right above you.” 

“Changbin,” His neighbor replies. “My name’s Changbin, I just moved in a couple weeks ago? Or has it been three?” He wonders.

“Why’d you move?” 

“To make my commute to work easier,” He sighs. “But, my old place didn’t have cockroaches. I should’ve just kept driving that hellish commute. Would’ve been much better than this.” 

_ I’ve never met someone this terrified of bugs, during my entire twenty-four years of living. _Changbin has been flinching at every piece of dust and hair that moves. He was even whacking the broomstick around earlier because he was scared a cockroach was going to attack him while he was peeing.

Minho hums. “Don’t worry too much. Try to get some sleep. We’ll check the rooms again in the morning.” He says, pushing fallen strands of hair from Changbin’s eyes. 

“I’ll try.” 

  


Hours later Changbin still couldn’t fall asleep. Minho had finally convinced Changbin to turn off the lights, hoping the boy would be able to fall asleep, but he never did. Changbin kept playing on his cell phone, then used the flashlight on the phone to check for movement in the bathroom.

Eventually, Minho grew too tired to keep the other company during his cockroach duty. He pulled Changbin into his arms, placing the other’s head on his chest, soothingly carding through Changbin’s hair. The last thing he feels before drifting into a peaceful slumber, is Changbin relaxing against him. The small hand gently splaying on his belly. 


End file.
